


Smells like home

by Hastalavie



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Universe, Christmas Fluff, Cold Weather, Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romance, Sleeping Together, Sleepy Cuddles, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Translation of my own work, i finally got around it after 6 months :D, i guess but without the drama and angst this is pure fluff I PROMISE, i guess... these two... oh my, kinda of course... they make me go UWU, maybe...., really this is so sweet oh wow how did i make this, this is set when everything used to be normal, title is so dumb im sorry, who knows? not me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:01:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26400835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hastalavie/pseuds/Hastalavie
Summary: With the arrival of the last month of the year, Eren finds the captain to be in a strangely bad mood. When Hange explains the reason behind it, will Eren be able to stay silent about it? Specially when they are left alone...
Relationships: Levi & Eren Yeager, Levi & Hange Zoë, Levi/Eren Yeager
Comments: 4
Kudos: 153





	Smells like home

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! this is completely self-indulgent and I have no excuses for it. I know that as a fandom (for whoever follows the manga) we are currently in not so happy times as in here. So if you are looking for something just to relax then you have come to the right place!
> 
> Originally made for Levi's birthday back in 2014.
> 
> Hope you like it!

Eren tucked himself a little bit more in between his bed sheets. He could feel the cold getting into the covers and then into his very bones. Damn it was cold.

He has been awake for a while now, but has decided to stay resting for a little longer due to the weather and his own laziness. Either way, the captain would shortly be trying to awaken him, and not in a very pleasant way. It wasn’t as he always yelled to wake him up – just when it was really necessary, as he overslept or didn’t hear the very first grumps of the captain calling his name multiple times-, for the rest of the days… one could even say he was kind of… nice.

But everything had changed in December. Christmas, which came with extra coldness, great amounts of food and you could literally breathe happiness everywhere, captain Levi hated it. He seemed to hate it, Eren noted, but he had preferred not to say anything regarding the topic –As he greatly valued his physical integrity.

Later into the month he had learnt the reason behind his apparent sudden – and worsening– bad temper, all thanks to the magnificent Hange Zoe. The scientist had cached him inspecting the captain from afar and surely with a big question mark on his face.

“Eren”

“Yes?” he said faraway.

“You really want to know why Shorty is in an extra bad temper these days, huh? Isn't that so?” she smiled widely while fixing her glasses.

Eren was ashamed, and aware that he was turning red in the face. Was he that obvious? Surely the captain must have noticed his scrutiny. While trying to calm down from the embarrassment, he hadn’t been able to answer Hange’s question, so he simply affirmed with his head.

Hange horse-laughed.

“Well, well. Levi doesn’t like it when I go around telling his business to everyone, but I’m going to tell you because I know otherwise you’d be stalking him and not closing an eye during bedtime.” There was a brief silence. “Levi doesn’t really hate Christmas, as you might have been thinking. He may be grumpy all the time but even he would go so far as to hate the holidays.”

Eren seemed to release air he didn’t know he was holding.

He was about to thank Hange for the information when she interrupted him.

“But! Levi does hate to celebrate his birthday, that as for some destiny’s sicko’ joke results it is the same day as Christmas. You could say he is a big mess of contradictions.” She paused again just to laugh. “Promise to not tell him anything I just said, Eren!” she finished as she was leaving.

So Captain Levi’s birthday was… _the same day as Christmas._

Eren was shocked.

It had been a week since all that had happened. For some strange reason that could be described as a big weird intense ball of… feelings in his stomach, Eren couldn't find it in himself to get out of bed. Which, okay in itself it wasn't so rare for a regular teenager to not want to get out of bed, much less while so early in the morning but, at the end of the day Eren was neither a regular teenager nor a sloth. He was a soldier, and he acted like one on all manners.

He had the feeling the day was going to be so long, so he was just indulging himself, just this once.

Maybe it was because of the harsh weather outside, which was abnormally cold –snow had started to intensify during the beginning of the week–, making all outside tasks almost impossible to accomplish. Including cleaning, which was at the top of the to-do list today, even if it wasn't that big of an issue to achieve lately.

At the end, even if he tried to lie to himself and avoid the topic, he knew it was a lost cause. After all; he did know the real reason for his tiredness today. It was December 25th.

Christmas.

Captain Levi’s birthday.

Eren grunted and covered his head with the blanket. He knew he could get around the ordeal by pretending to know nothing, but being honest that wasn't going to happen. Why would the captain hate his own birthday? Why didn't anyone else know about it? He was pretty sure no one else in the castle knew about the thing, not even Petra.

Birthdays were meant to be celebrated, he thought. Though the captain may have his own reasons to not want anyone to know nor celebrate or congratulate him for it, he would do it, if it meant he had to clean the roof of all the bedrooms on the castle afterwards then so be it.

He sat down on his bed, his hair was a whole mess and he was still sleepy. He realized the captain did not go to wake him up that morning, and no one else went looking for him. He decided to start the day to avoid a reprimand. Maybe it was too early, but he doubted that.

At the end, there was no way for him to know for certain what time it was, as windows were scarce in the basement.

He resolved and stood up to go dress and wash his face –and see what could be done with that hairdo.

**~XX~**

When he had finally dressed up, Eren went up the basement stairs. One of the few hatchs was letting tiny sparks of the sun into the place, so he supposed that he was just going in time, –or maybe too early.

He made his way into the kitchen, where everyone was supposed to be starting their day, making breakfast and other activities, such as falling asleep on the kitchen table.

“Good morning all’’ he announced while entering the dining area.

Silence.

There was nobody there. No captain drinking his morning tea, no Hange talking your ears off, no team mates falling asleep around or eating their hearts off, just empty. Not even a single noise coming from the close vicinity. He could only catch a few birds outside, and through the windows he could see the falling snow, covering the trees nearby.

Eren walked into the middle of the room just to make sure he was not hallucinating. Maybe he was wrong and it was really too early into the morning. If that was the case, it would be weird as he was used to waking just in time or a little later than that, but never this early.

“Hello?’’ he said a little louder. He really doubted he would be left alone in the castle.

Eren looked around again and dismissed the room, going up the stairs to the second floor. He walked up carefully, as it by making a single noise would make something break down.

He ended up touring around the whole castle in search of his fellow mates. He could not find a single soul. Not on the bedrooms, kitchen, even the common room or the store house.

The library was the only room left to check. He made his way there, a place he shamelessly admitted he could make more visits to but did not find the time to do so.

“Hello...?’’ he repeated while carefully opening the big heavy doors for the library. The place was strangely warm, making a big contrast to the stone cold hallways of the lonely castle.

“Morning brat’’

He startled and turned when he heard the captain’s voice coming from his left, being caught unguarded.

“Morning captain Levi!’’ he shouted back, straightening his back to a full military salute.

Eren then took his time to really see the man in front of him. Captain Levi was fully looking back at him, he was sitting down on one of the couches there. He had a small book on his lap and the hearth was burning with little intensity, enough to make you warm. He came to the conclusion that after all this time knowing the man, this was the very first time he saw him in such a state, almost _relaxed_.

“What are you doing awake, Eren?’’ He said the words calmly, like the fact of Eren being awake was itself a wonder and unprecedented.

“Is it too early, sir?’’

Levi looked out of the window. Through the crystal only white light came filtering into the room due to the snow.

“I guess’’ he replied, while staring back at Eren again, who was still standing by the door. “You can sit down. And please close the door, damn coldness is getting into the room’’ he added.

Eren did as he was told and closed the door carefully, he then made his way into one of the spare couches in front of captain Levi, close to the fire. He drew his hands close to the hearth, warming them up a little. He hadn't realized how cold the rest of the building was until he had entered this room. So warm and smelled like home.

He snuggled into the couch a bit more, not enough to be truly comfortable but not too much to be considered improper.

“Captain, where are the rest?’’ he asked after a while of strangely comfortable silence.

Levi had continued to read after Eren had entered the room. He had his legs crossed and a book up to his nose, really focused. If Eren didn't know better he would say he looked like a really disciplined professor. He kept reading for a while, enough to leave Eren's question dissipate and get lost into the air, until he finally focused his eyes on Eren again, letting the book rest on his lap once more.

“As you might know, today is Christmas. Everyone went to the city to visit their relatives’’ he said with his typical tone of voice. “Hange just went to buy… things, I suppose. Erwin is full of things to do and solve, so he is out as well. That's for sure’’ He stayed quiet for a few seconds, looking at the ground for a bit. “Or maybe he is buried and suffocating under a pile of paper in his office, wouldn't really know as I haven't seen him yet’’ he ended camly, like he was explaining something very difficult to understand.

The captain looked at him for a few more seconds, like waiting on his response. Eren did not add anything more than nodding with his head to confirm he understood all that. Levi seemed content with that and grabbed the book again to continue with his reading.

Eren was lost in thoughts for a long while. They were completely alone, both of them. Maybe Commander Erwin was buried under a pile of paperwork on his office, but besides that they were completely and utterly _alone_.

Everyone had left for the holidays to their families, and they were the only ones with no one to come back to.

That train of thoughts saddened him and he decided to stop it right there. At least he had Mikasa and Armin, but they were both far from the academy. He missed them a lot.

Eren decided to start looking out of the window in silence, with short of anything else to do and dissipate such depressive thoughts from his mind. That until his stomach decided to embarrass him and make a loud growl of hunger.

He felt his complete face going hot and quickly turned to see captain Levi, just to live on the false hope that maybe the man hadn't listened to that, which died as soon as he turned to see him because the other was already staring directly into his eyes.

“Stupid brat. Don't tell me you were not capable of finding something to eat from the kitchen’’ he half wondered half stated while standing up, leaving the book face down on a nearby table so as to not lose the page. Eren covered his face with his hands and crunched down on his seat. “What are you doing? Come on, let’s go’’

Eren uncovered his face just in time to see captain Levi making his way out of the library. He standed up so fast that he got a little dizzy and black dots appeared on his vision, then he quietly followed the captain through the cold and empty hallways of the castle.

**~XXX~**

Eren was surprised when he realized they were going to the kitchen. He knew for sure –all thanks to Hange–, that the captain could not cook to save a life, not even his own. So maybe he was going to ask Eren to cook himself.

They entered the kitchen and Levi made a beeline for the countertop, where a teapot was seemingly still steaming hot as he noticed when the captain poured himself some black tea.

Levi grabbed the cup and took a small sip in his own particular way while he turned around, resting his waist on the counter behind him and staring directly at Eren again.

“Are you not going to eat?’’ he said, while blowing a bit on the tea before taking another sip.

Eren was truly startled. So the captain had accompanied him all the way to the kitchen just so he could eat and not be alone? That was something that surely didn't happen on a regular basis. The captain had even stopped his reading and left a warm cozy room, all to make Eren some company.

He felt a tiny pinch on his stomach, of something close to pleasant, but could not really describe that feeling further than that.

Maybe it was hunger.

He moved to the counter where he knew that the bread was stored and grabbed a bit, and then poured some tea for himself as well. He made his way to the table and sat down, a little awkward as he was now sitting down and the captain was still standing up.

“Sit down with me, Captain’’ he said without thinking, unable to stop himself. He knocked himself out mentally.

Despite the million of possible reactions –just a few were positive–, that were formulated in just a second on his head on _How Will Captain Levi React When Being Ordered By A Subordinate_ , Eren found himself once again surprised when the Captain silently grabbed a chair and sat in front of him, placing the steaming cup on the table. Not even a comment of Eren’s mind slip of just a few seconds ago was said.

Many peculiar things had been happening that day, and Eren was completely not used to seeing or experiencing any of them coming from the man he was receiving orders from.

Eren kept on eating, leaving his internal monologue for later.

**~XXXX~**

Without realizing, the day was about to end as Eren could see the sunset through the windows, even if one could barely have noticed it during the day. The captain and Eren had been leisuring all day, which also included discovering that in fact commander Erwin was not buried under his pile of work but that instead he had gone out of the castle as well.

After Eren had taken his breakfast, they had made their way again to the library. He found out that the Captain was susceptible to coldness, after seeing the man covering himself with a blanket when afternoon took over. They had both been reading; –making them also skip lunch, and a comfortable silence had manifested during the day between them, because at the end they didn't really have anything to say to the other.

Eren had fallen asleep for a moment, waking up just a few hours later under the intense scrutiny of Captain Levi, who was still fully covered by the blanket, sitting on the couch in front of him.

“I fell asleep… sorry’’ he said while recovering the sitting position on the couch. The general temperature had descended and the fire was about to light off.

He indolently stood up and went to the hearth to try and set it alight.

From the corner of his eye he saw the captain stand up as well, still rolled into his blanket. He seemed like a child, and reminded him of when he was a small boy as well.

He found himself surprised once again when captain Levi made his way to the couch Eren had been occupying just a moment ago and quietly sat there.

Eren raised from his crouched down position when he was finished and looked back at the captain, snuggled up now on the couch he had spent the entire day sitting and sleeping on.

He didn't really know what to think of the situation. Was he supposed to sit on the other couch now? Leave? He didn't have a clue.

After a while of just looking at one another, Levi got tired of it and decided to speak. “Eren, sit’’ he said with an authoritarian voice, and still staring at him.

Eren walked all over the other couch and was about to sit when he was interrupted again.

“Don't be an idiot Eren, sit here with me.’’

He froze. Had he heard correctly? No, maybe he was still sleeping. Was it a dream? Nightmare? Hallucination? Eren blinked several times and gulped nervously. “Come again, sir?’’ he dared to ask.

“You sure are a little brat, you don't get things first hand right? You are dumb but somehow you are able to keep warm’’ He paused, tucking himself on the blanket he had. “...and I’m cold, Eren.’’

Eren felt once again that strange feeling coming right from the center of his stomach. He was sure this time it was not because of hunger.

Robotically he turned around and made his way to the sofa, just in front of where captain Levi was currently sitting down. He noted that the point of his nose was slightly red, and it took all of his might not the laugh right there.

Without saying a thing he made his way into the small place and covered himself with his own cover, even if he was not feeling that cold.

Eren felt how Levi leaned his head into his shoulder right away and his small but callused hands grabbed his arm, his eyes closed with content.

His hands were cold.

After a second he dared to speak his thoughts again “I didn't know before that captain Levi was this sensitive to the cold weather’’

“And I didnt know you were a fucking walking warming bag, brat’’ he replied right away, with no hesitation and cuddling more into Eren’s side as if to prove his point.

He could still hear the birds outside, probably on their nests. The wind was strongly howling, making those little noises when it tried to enter under the window’s cracks. The wood was burning slowly from the hearth and for a moment he could hear the neighing far away from the stables where – his and captain Levi’s– horses should be resting.

“Captain Levi’’

His voice came out softly for some reason. He lowered his sight to the man beside him. His eyes were closed and his nose was still red. His hands had so long warmed out but they were still holding into him like dear life. Not that Eren was bothered in the slightest for this, and neither did he comment on it.

“Hm?’’ he muttered as a reply.

“Merry christmas’’ he murmured.

Levi opened his eyes slowly, like waking up from a long nap and looked at him. Maybe he had thought that Eren had somehow forgotten about the whole deal.

He removed one of his hands from Eren’s arm and took it up to his hair, giving him a rustle. He had never done that before.

“Merry christmas Eren’’ he muttered and took his hands back to his original place on Eren’s arm, closing his eyes once more.

Eren felt that the weird void on his stomach that had been bothering him all day fluttered and felt happiness filling him, like when he ate his favorite food. As fast as he came to the realization he felt again the weird tingly feeling of something not quite happiness settling down.

He sighed.

He remembered something then, which he right away wished had not. Hange had said not to comment on it. He thought that it might have been because of the weird atmosphere they had been having the whole day or how the captain had been in such a good mood unlike any other day of that month.

“Actually Captain, I also wanted to… hm... ’’ he paused, thinking how to phrase his idea. “I wanted to tell you that… ah.’’ His nerves were getting the best out of him. Suddenly he did not feel the tranquility they had been sharing. Either way, he already had half of it out, he might as well. “Happy birthday’’

He was so bold. He shut his eyes and felt his whole face going hot.

Levi released his arm and made some space exist between them, though he was still very close. Eren opened one of his eyes to find the captain looking directly at him.

“Was it Hange?’’

Eren nodded.

“Shitty four eyes’’ he said quietly, but not enough for Eren to not hear.

“She made me promise not to tell! But ah, I really think birthdays should be celebrated, even if it's just the both of us here... I wanted to let the captain know that at least someone remembered him. Because of that… happy birthday captain Levi.’’ he barely paused between each word, just babbling everything he felt and wanted to express in that moment.

Levi was looking at him with surprise. Very few times Eren had had the opportunity to really glance at him this close before, much less to see emotions show so clearly on that face.

_Adorable_.

Without thinking he jumped onto him to tightly hug Levi. It had been a very long time since he had done this with anyone else.

He buried captain Levi’s face onto his neck hollow and took his arms around his neck. He took the permission to smell his hair and closed his own eyes. He felt then how Levi was moving his arms up and down his back, corresponding to his effusive hug.

They stayed like that for a long while. He could feel Levi’s breath on his neck, and the only thing he could hear was the beat of his own heart. He was almost sitting on his lap, but he did not care. Levi neither said a thing.

“You really are warm Eren.’’ he said, burying his head a little bit more on his neck. He felt tickling due to Levi’s respiration so close to his sensitive skin.

“You can stay with me as long as you want’’

“Hmm’’

That was the last Eren heard before his heartbeat and his breathing slowed down.

Levi had fallen asleep.

Eren did too.

**~XXXXX~**

“Wow’’

A tall figure with glasses muttered from the library’s door while looking at the scene that was showing right in front.

In one of the tiny sofas meant to be used by one person, rolled between two thick blankets and the hearth about to extinguish, Hange found Eren and Levi.

The shortest of the two was just above the youngest, his head cuddled up right on his shoulders. Levi was sleeping like she had never seen him to do before, profoundly. Eren had his toned arms around him, covering his back. It was like he was trying to avoid the other to suddenly wake up and escape.

Hange smiled. It would surely be bad to interrupt them. Well, it had been her fault for delaying so much with the ingredients for a cake.

She came to the hearth to set it up again and left silently right after, making her way to the kitchen to figure out how to exactly prepare a cake.

She was dying to see how these two would react once they woke up.

It sure will be something worth seeing.

**Author's Note:**

> Well well... if you came this far I really want to thank you and I'm grateful for it. Its been like... +5 years since I have published something around and would greatly appreciate feedback, comments or if you're shy kudos will work!
> 
> Did I publish a christmas fic in the middle of September? Yes I did. But in reality, who's even keeping track of the months at this point? 2020 is really something.
> 
> ALSO! If you speak spanish and want to read the original I published back when I was a teenager and happier, go hit it up from FNF (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10917517/1/Olor-de-hogar) 
> 
> Apologies for any typos, this was translated and edited by me all in one night (not the translation, I procrastinated that for months whoops) 
> 
> Please leave a comment! <3
> 
> Take care you all! :D


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